"The rise of unions in the 1930's and 1940's led to the first great expansion of health care for Americans. But ironically, it did not produce a national plan providing health care to all, like those in virtually all other developed countries. Instead, the special conditions of World War II produced the system of job-based health benefits we know today.

"In 1942, the US set up a National War Labor Board. It had the power to set a cap on all wage increases. But it let employers circumvent the cap by offering 'fringe benefits' - notably, health insurance. The fringe benefits created a huge tax subsidy; they were treated as tax-deductible expenses for corporations, but not as taxable income for workers.

"Because this private system was tied to employment, it did not provide health insurance for all. Millions of people outside the workforce were without coverage. Those most likely to be covered were salaried or unionized white men in northern industrial states. Two-thirds of those with incomes under $2,000 a year were not covered, nor were nearly half of nonwhites and those over 65.

"Employer-based plans tied workers to their jobs - something that benefited employers, but not workers or the economy as a whole. The quality of the coverage was spotty - some plans were excellent, others completely inadequate. Doctors accepted this revolution because it didn't challenge their power; but, as a result, the system provided no public control over medical costs.     

"This revolution had a subtle political effect as well. By giving much of the workforce health benefits, it reduced the incentive for them to pursue a system of universal care. And it gave unions a stake in the private, employer-based health care system.

"Many of the problems of American health care grow out of this history. The system is so complex that even experts - let alone ordinary people trying to find care for themselves and their loved ones - are unable to fully understand it. The system spends one-third of its cost on paperwork, waste and profit over and above the cost of actually providing health care. Yet, nearly one-third of Americans are without health insurance over the course of a year. In all other developed countries, more than 85 percent of citizens have health coverage under public programs. The American health care system is full of inequalities: People who work for one company may have high quality insurance, while those who work for a similar company have none.     

"All of these problems are due at least in part to an employer-based system, the original intent of which was not to provide quality health care to all, but to circumvent wartime wage regulations. As we begin to debate how to reform health care, we should keep in mind that the American health care system was not created to express American values or to meet Americans' health care needs..."

As for those in Congress bought and paid for by the huge, powerful corporate health care industry, who claim that single payer is impractical, that is a myth and a lie.

It has been debunked ad infinitum, for example here and here.  

There is already a practical solution that exists, HR 676 Medicare for All, which would more than fulfill Harry S Truman's proposal for national health care insurance more than a half century ago.

This nation's people should no longer accept nor tolerate the woodenheadedness of our elected officials in Washington continuing government of, by and for corporations and wealthy few that want to maintain health care as a hugely profit commodity.  

Amercians demand single payer health care for all as a human right in this country now, just as it is in most other industrialized nations that have offered it to all their people for a long time.

We don't need any more woodenheaded politicians ignoring the demands of a majority of Americans for single payer health for all, by putting ice cream on shit and telling them to eat it and be grateful.